Central Midwives Board , Register of Cases
1906-1927

As much of the information contained in the Register is of a personal nature it is only
the Name and Address of the mother and Date of Birth that have been
extracted for this name listing. Any name after the surname is likely the husband's
or his wife's christian name, NOT that of the child. The entries
are as listed and are generally in date order [with exceptions] and the village
is Cwmgors[e] unless stated otherwise. GCG is the abbreviation for
Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen.
An * indicates my own family, the mother giving birth being the daughter
in law of the midwife.

The register and midwife's certificate/licence have been lodged with W Glamorgan Archives
[ Nov 2000].

Margaret Davies is one of my maternal great grandmothers, she became the
local midwife in the village of Cwmgors, Llangiwg parish, Glamorgan.
I had in my possession her midwife's Register of Cases and Midwife's Certificate
and in the process of depositing these with West Glamorgan Archives
I thought it would be a suitable touch if a brief story of her life, as I
know it, accompanied the documents. This is it below, together with some comments about the Register and midwifery.

Margaret was born at Velindre, Llansadwrn parish, Carmarthenshire on 5th
May 1854, one of 10 children of John and Susannah Davies. I have traced John's
line back to the 1770s in Cynwyl Gaeo, and Susannah's back to the 1790s in
Llansadwrn.

And it was probably her on the 1871 census at Cwmeilath, Llansadwrn, with
an Edwards family, she was a general servant, age 19.

I don't know the exact circumstances of her leaving Llansadwrn for Glamorgan
but family lore has it that she was a servant at Nant-y-gasseg farm, Cwmgors
before she married John Davies on 29 May 1880 at St Peter's Church, Llanguicke,
Glamorgan. John, originally from Llandeilo fawr, was a manservant at Cwrt
y Bariwns farm, on nearby Gwrhyd mountain.

The 1881 census finds them at Pencaergarreg, Llangiwg, with son William aged
1.

William was born at Glynceirch, Llandeilo on 9 June 1880 [!] but the certificate
shows his father as William Davies, farm labourer, not John. Naturally I
queried this with the Registrar, and have seen the actual entry which does
indeed say William. The informant was David Davies, occupier of Glynceirch,
who presumably misunderstood the question re the father, or is there another
explanation ?? This David Davies was probably the widower of Eliza, Margaret's
aunt.

The 1891 census shows them at [Pt of] Llwynrhidiau, Cwmgors--John Davies
31 coal miner, Margaret 35, wife, William 10, son, scholar, David John ISAAC
5, scholar, Mary Lewis 15, visitor, William Davies 65, father, widower,
labourer,[Llansawel], all Welsh speaking.
From papers held it is clear that the 1891 house was either 34 or 38 Gors
St., Cwmgors.

The extended family eventually lived in three terrace houses on this site
which became known locally as "Tirbach Terrace", after the farm called Tirbach,
Llandeilo fawr that Margaret's husband John was born in. And indeed the family
became known as "the Tirbachs" to distinguish them from the many other Davieses
in the village.

Margaret and John only had the one child, William, and her ten grandchildren
mostly became coal miners, with a farmer thrown in. I wonder what she thought
of her grandson William [Wil Sgili] playing rugby for his country in 1931/32
?
I know that the photograph of him being presented to the Prince of Wales
had pride of place on the 'gegin' [kitchen] wall at 34 Gors St ever since
I can remember.

Margaret ran a 'Coffee Tavern' in the front parlour at 34 Gors St for some
time, certainly c 1910, and let the same room to Lloyds Bank later on.

She also took in 'strays'...local orphans, usually older children.

And put up visiting preachers to Tabernacle for the weekend.

I think she must have been an unusual woman in many ways, another family
story has her walking over the mountains from Cwmgors to Maesteg, all of
15 miles as the crow flies, knitting a shawl on the way, and bringing back
a baby in it to look after; this is assumed to be the David John Isaac who
is shown with the family on the 1891 census. Margaret brought him up, he
was her sister Anne's son.

The family were members of Tabernacle Independent Chapel Cwmgors, where
Margaret's husband John Davies was a deacon in his time.

Margaret is mentioned as the "Chwaer hynaf yr Eglwys" [Elder sister of the
church] at a presentation at Tabernacle in 1938.["Annibynwyr Gwaun-cae-gurwen
" L Hughes].

The midwife's Register of Cases covers the period Feb 1906 to Sept 1927 and,
allowing for numbering errors, it has entries for 475 babies delivered in
Cwmgors, and sometimes in the next door village of Gwaun-cae-gurwen. This
includes my own mother amongst seven of the ten children of Margaret's daughter
in law.

I have nothing to compare these figures with but an analysis of the entries
shows that one mother died, 10 days after giving birth , 2 babies were still
born, and 21 babies died at birth. Five of the latter were in 1910 which
must have been a very distressing year for Margaret.

I recently had an email from someone who had looked at the index, who told
me "she actually delivered my mother in law at ... farm on
...1915. My mother in law has just been here and was overwhelmed to read
the entry. What's more your g grand mother's brother was fighting in Louvaine
in France at the time and your g grandmother persuaded my mother in law's
mother to name her baby after the place -- and she became Esther Louvaine.

That seems to also explain why Margaret's own grand daughter was named Susanah
Mary Alsace Lorraine in 1914 !

The columns in the Register that were actually used are ; Name and address;
No. of previous Labours and Miscarriages; Age; Date and hour of Midwife's
arrival ; Date and hour of Birth ; Presentation ; Duration of 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Stage of Labour[not completed after 1910] ; Sex of Infant.Born Living or
Dead ; Full time or Premature No.of Months ; If Doctor called, Name of Doctor
; Date of Midwife's last Visit ; Condition of Mother then ; Condition of
Child then ; Remarks.

To give an idea of the required "tools of the trade", on an inside front
page of the Register is written "Lysol " and "Jeyes' Fluid" and on the back
inside cover "The Medical Supply, 4 Newport Rd, Cardiff" and "Enema Syringe
& glass vaginal nozzle-6/-". Deleted is "Midwives red lined thermometer
1/-, by post 1/1."

We also have Margaret's certificate, number 13008, dated January 26 1905
issued by the Central Midwives Board. This says that " Margaret Davies is
entitled by law to practice as a Midwife in accordance with the provisions
of the Midwives Act, 1902...by virtue of having been in bona fide
practice as a Midwife for one year prior to the 31 July 1902."

Although I have no information as to what training Margaret herself received,
if any, I understand that there was training of midwives which started formally
in the late 1860s; before that it was `on the job` training .

It was the 1902 Act that recognised the training and licensed midwives, but
it was still possible to obtain a licence if you could show `experience`,
until formal registration of midwives started around 1924.

The Boards of Guardians in different Unions throughout the land had different
standards which didn't always require even a trained midwife to be employed
for the needy as the Union doctor was generally responsible for their care.
To keep the costs down for the Union it was often the case that the doctor
would pay for the midwife or whoever he trusted out of his midwifery fee,
usually about 10 shillings of which the midwife took half. I don't know what
the local practice was in Cwmgors.

Margaret was known as Mamgu White in the family, reflecting the colour of
her hair and to distinguish her from the other mamgu in the house, Sarah,
her daughter in law.

Margaret had been widowed in 1922, lost her son in 1930 and she died herself
aged 85 on 23 September 1939.

That was before I was born but I am fortunate in having two large photographs
of her hanging on my walls, a quite severe looking 'Victorian matriarch',
I wouldn't want to have crossed her too often !

It seems extraordinary to me that she was aged 52 when the Register commences
and aged 73 when it ends.

She is buried in the family plot at Hen Garmel, Gwaun-cae-gurwen, the headstone
inscription appears particularly apt ;

"Ar hyn a allodd hon, hi ai gwnaeth ", [Whatever this one could do, that
she did].